In case you missed it: November on Planet Hugill - Curious women, arsonists and a cafe-concert

Finnegan Downie Dear (piano) with Gareth Brynmore John (baritone) at Exeter College Chapel
at Oxford Lieder Festival 2015, photo credit Robert Piwko

Welcome to November on Planet Hugill, a month which included a remarkable group of unusual and rarely performed operas.

A Clutch of Unusual Operas

The first opera written for Paris, Luigi Rossi's Orpheus at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Wolf-Ferrari's Le donne curiose at the Guildhall School. Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina at Brighton Early Music Festival. Handel's Tamerlano at the Barbican with Max Emanuel Cencic and Xavier Sabata. Simon Vosecek's Biedermann and the Arsonists from Independent Opera. Leoncavallo's Zaza with Ermonela Jaho from Opera Rara. Georg Friedrich Haas's Morgen und Abend at Covent Garden.

Festivals in Oxford, Brighton and London

I spent a day at the Oxford Lieder Festival, which you can read about in part one and part two of the article. At Brighton Early Music Festival, there was Convent, court & salon: three contrasting 17th century women, and Handel's Acis and Galatea. And London Song Festival visited La Serenissima.

Concerts in various places

Karlheinz Stockhausen's In the sky I am walking. Jazz inspired: the Britten Sinfonia at Saffron Hall. The Shepherd on the Rock - Ailish Tynan, Emma Johnson & Finghin Collins at Temple Music (and see below for Ailish Tynan's disc of the work).

From our correspondent Ruth

Sumi Hwang and Helmut Deutsch at Rosenblatt Recitals. La Forza del Destino at the London Coliseum directed by Calixto Bieito. L'Ospedale from Solomon's Knot at Wilton's Music Hall. Roderick Williams, Ashley Solomons and Florilegium, and Christiane Karg and Graham Johnson in Schubert at the Wigmore Hall.

Interviews and Features

Vienna State Opera, live and on HD, an interview with Dominique Meyer. Towards creating new opera, Helios Collective's Formations masterclasses. Musicology, performance and manuscripts: my encounter with David Skinner. Thomas Tallis: Chronology, Contexts and Discoveries study day at Sidney Sussex College. Creating La Boheme in wartime Paris - an encounter with Nina Brazier. Launch of the 2016 Leeds Festival Lieder Festival.

CD's that we listened to

Loquebantur: music from the Baldwin Partbooks. Ann Boleyn's songbook from David Skinner and Alamire. Purcell's Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts. Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice from Laurence Equilbey & Franco Fagioli. Rameau's Anacreon from Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Mozart's Il re pastore from Ian Page and Classical Opera. The Shepherd on the Rock: Ailish Tynan, Julian Bliss and Christopher Glynn. Gounod's La Colombe from Opera Rara. Songs by Jules Massenet from Sally Silver and Richard Bonynge. Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus. Chamber music by Elena Firsova. Solitudes, Baltic reflections from Mr McFall's Chamber. Seasons: Oliver Davis and Vivaldi.

Credits

Our photo this month is Finnegan Downie Dear (piano) with Gareth Brynmore John (baritone) at Exeter College Chapel at Oxford Lieder Festival 2015, photo credit Robert Piwko.